Topographic reconstruction refers to the practice of creating a surface representation of an object.
Numerous applications rely on obtaining an object's topographic representation. For example, in vivo optical imaging involves the capture of light emitted from within an object. A source of the light inside the object indicates a portion of the object where an activity of interest may be taking place. In one imaging application, the object is a small animal such as a mouse and the low intensity light source includes tumor cells that are being tracked and are labeled with a light-emitting reporter, such as firefly luciferase or a fluorescent protein or dye. Diffuse tomography techniques can be used to determine the location and brightness of labeled cells. However, these techniques require accurate measure of the surface topography of the animal subject.
There are difficulties associated with obtaining surface representations for small objects such as mice. Each mouse has a unique size, and its shape changes each time the mouse is anesthetized and imaged. These realities demand that topographic reconstruction occur efficiently and without excessive time (or labor) for each mouse or new object. In addition, mice include surface features that complicate topographic measurement: concave surface features can be tough to detect with an external and distant camera; and fur or folds in the skin increasingly introduce noise for surface measurements as surface resolution increases. Structured light topography, which casts a series of closely spaced lines onto the object and detects deformation in the lines resulting from the shape of the object, often errs when the inter-line spacing nears the resolution of surface features on the object such as mouse fur and high curvature regions.
Currently, there is no topographic reconstruction technology that both a) services complex surfaces and high detail needed for imaging applications such as in vivo optical imaging and b) permits easy and efficient production of a high definition surface representation. In view of the foregoing, new techniques for obtaining topography of a small object are desirable.